1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to a first-class mail production system or similar printing systems that permit a direct connection between a high-speed document printing process that utilizes “printer-lane-packaging” techniques to produce single to multi-page document package sets (variable page-count sets) and an envelope insertion and mailing process. More particularly, the subject invention relates to a system and a process for printing both form information and variable data information on printer-lane-generated documents that are subsequently cut, folded, and collated into individual document set packages having one or more pages per set in such a fashion that the resultant set packages may either directly or indirectly pass to a suitable envelope inserter for further post-printing processes, thereby combining two processes that traditionally have been completely separate entities and normally placed in different physical locations.
2. Description of Related Art
The exceedingly novel and non-obvious subject invention combines some elements of traditional direct mail processing with standard first-class mailing techniques and adds an overall new document processing sequence to create a reliable and efficient document package system for bulk mailings. Commercial printing practices routinely produce direct mail document packages that do not vary in the number of pages within each document package, in line with the printing process and achieve reliable rates, but do not attempt to fold, collate, and insert these sheets into envelopes or generate document packages which contain varied sheet counts per document package. Such direct mail identical sheets are commonly produced using commercial printing and finishing technology, where a high speed, high-tension paper web runs for hours without stopping. Downstream from the utilized printing units are positioned a slitter and a high-speed rotary cutter that convert the web into streams of shingled sheets that are then carried on a conveyor to a desired location. Subsequent processing equipment operates on these shingled streams of cut information-static sheets, typically doing aligning, trimming, and bundling. This approach reduces the likelihood of jams, allowing the equipment to run continuously for hours or even days. Thus, per-piece labor and capacity costs are low.
As will be described below in detail, the subject invention adds two further critical processing steps that are above and beyond those mentioned above to produce a highly flexible and integrated packaging system. First, the number of sheets per packaged piece may vary from as little as one sheet to as many as 20, 30, 100, or more. Second, each and every sheet is unique and must be accounted for and tracked. No existing direct mail production operation has ever achieved these two additional capabilities or constraints. Because of the complexity associated with meeting these two constraints, current practitioners of bulk first-class mail production have been forced to indirectly incorporate these two constraints into the chain of processing their mail by performing sheet-level processing (i.e., cutting, collating, and folding) off-line, away from the printer. This off-line approach prevents “exceptions” in the less reliable cutting, collating, and folding processes from stopping the printer. Instead, these processes are performed in-line with the inserter (see immediately below). This separation approach makes economic sense in an environment where printing assets are much more valuable than inserting assets, because the down-time capacity cost (i.e., depreciation) of a sheet jam at a quarter million dollar inserter is only a fraction of that of a sheet jam at a five million dollar printer.
As seen in FIGS. 1-3, the three distinct processes associated with existing mass-mailing of billing statements are shown. FIG. 1 depicts the traditional way in which standard fixed-data forms are generated, usually by an “outside” vendor (“outside” to the variable-data printing location and envelope insertion location).
Wide (36 inch) rolls of blank stock paper are run through a form printer to create a “web” of printed forms. The web containing the printed forms is slit down the middle and wound into two narrow rolls (each 18 inches wide). These 18 inch rolls are then stored for later use or used immediately. In any case, the 18 inch rolls of forms, eventually, are transported to the next piece of equipment for utilization.
FIG. 2 illustrates the standard variable data printing phase for traditional statement preparations. The 18 inch form rolls are transported to an unwinder, thereby producing, again, the relatively linear web of forms that was previously wound for storage and/or transport. The web then enters a variable data printing device. A web of forms now having variable data printed on them exits the variable data printing device and is fed into a stacker which normally fan-folds the final forms into stacks that are either stored or transported to the next piece of equipment for insertion into a mailing envelope.
FIG. 3 describes typical post-production (after variable-data has been printed on a standard fixed-data printed form) handling of statements. The stacked and fan-folded web is now cut into individual sheets that are then collated into specific individual sets, with each set being a customer's billing statement. The individual sets are then folded and passed to an inserter that generates the final in-envelope statements, with associated inserts. The final statements are delivered to appropriate mailing trays via an automatic trayer and then to the suitable mail carrier, such as USPS.
Thus, the existing prior art generally falls into two categories: 1) printing finishing systems that produce same-number-of-sheets sets of documents or 2) inserting systems that produce variable-number-of-sheets sets documents from already printed sheets. No combined systems are known to exist, therefore the subject invention that discloses a finishing system that produces variable-number-of-sheets sets of documents is novel and non-obvious.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,754,434 relates an integrated printing and inserting system in which two or more streams of sheets (i.e., bill detail sheets from one direction and a bill cover sheet from another direction) are merged into a collated package and then sent to a folder and from there to subsequent handling devices. The subject invention's “lane packaging” concept is not suggested or disclosed in the '434 patent.
Found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,624 is an insertions machine having a multiple document detector. Presented within this document is a means of thickness measurement for the purposes of exception detection and does not discloses any means or process of document generation.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,972,655, 5,409,441, 5,524,421, and 5,960,607 all disclose mailing finishing systems that produce, in a single run, same-number-of-pages sets of documents from a web press. It is once again stressed that the subject invention produces variable-number-of-pages sets of documents or same-number-of-pages sets of documents or a desired mixture of same or variable page count sets.